Kenny Dalglish has revealed Steven Gerrard is continuing to receive treatment on his groin injury and Liverpool will leave it late before making a decision on the participation of their captain against Wigan.

Gerrard played 90 minutes against Chelsea at the weekend, but was left out of England's friendly with Denmark on Wednesday after reporting discomfort in his groin. The problem is not felt to be serious, but Dalglish will not take any risks with his captain.

"It's only Thursday so we will find out as we get nearer to the weekend," Dalglish said. "Obviously we hope he will be. He's having treatment.

"At the moment there is nobody that we know of that is coming back from international duty with any injury problems. Martin Skrtel travelled and then came back home. We'll have to assess him as well.

"We might not be too bad for bodies but as I say, we are not training until later on and we won't know until then, when everyone reports back."

Joe Cole's fitness and form has been a worry for Liverpool since his switch from Chelsea, but Dalglish is convinced the midfielder has a future Anfield.

He added: "He's had a couple of injuries. Obviously he got off to a bad start when he got sent off in the first game. He lost a bit of the momentum he gained. He's picked up a few injuries after training very well here and then just tweaked his knee a bit.

"He'll be a bit frustrated but so are we because it's nice to see Joe on the pitch. But given a wee bit of luck, he shouldn't be too far away. I'd have thought if we get Joe Cole fit and available, he'll be a good asset for us. It's been frustrating for everybody, but mainly for Joe I think."

Meanwhile, Dalglish admits there is still no date set for Andy Carroll's return from injury.

Carroll has not played since December after picking up a thigh strain, which was initially only expected to keep him out of action for a couple of weeks. He missed five matches for Newcastle in January, but his injury was not enough to deter the Reds, who paid £35 million for him on transfer deadline day.

But Carroll's eagerly-anticipated Liverpool debut may still be some weeks away from a return after Dalglish refused to speculate when the striker could return.

"He's progressing very well," Dalglish said. "We never gave you a date for his return and we won't. He's progressing very well and we said it would be several weeks. We signed him for five and a half years, not a few weeks. As long as we are patient and Andy is patient then we'll be okay. We won't be rushing him back."